But he was not sure of this; and, greatly excited, Stockdale determined to investigate the mystery, and to adopt his own way for doing it.  He blew out the match without lighting the candle, went into the passage, and proceeded on tiptoe towards Lizzy’s room.  A faint grey square of light in the direction of the chamber-window as he approached told him that the door was open, and at once suggested that the occupant was gone.  He turned and brought down his fist upon the handrail of the staircase:  ‘It was she; in her late husband’s coat and hat!’

Somewhat relieved to find that there was no intruder in the case, yet none the less surprised, the minister crept down the stairs, softly put on his boots, overcoat, and hat, and tried the front door.  It was fastened as usual:  he went to the back door, found this unlocked, and emerged into the garden.  The night was mild and moonless, and rain had lately been falling, though for the present it had ceased.  There was a sudden dropping from the trees and bushes every now and then, as each passing wind shook their boughs.  Among these sounds Stockdale heard the faint fall of feet upon the road outside, and he guessed from the step that it was Lizzy’s.  He followed the sound, and, helped by the circumstance of the wind blowing from the direction in which the pedestrian moved, he got nearly close to her, and kept there, without risk of being overheard.  While he thus followed her up the street or lane, as it might indifferently be called, there being more hedge than houses on either side, a figure came forward to her from one of the cottage doors.  Lizzy stopped; the minister stepped upon the grass and stopped also.

‘Is that Mrs. Newberry?’ said the man who had come out, whose voice Stockdale recognized as that of one of the most devout members of his congregation.

‘It is,’ said Lizzy.

‘I be quite ready—­I’ve been here this quarter-hour.’

‘Ah, John,’ said she, ’I have bad news; there is danger to-night for our venture.’

‘And d’ye tell o’t!  I dreamed there might be.’

‘Yes,’ she said hurriedly; ’and you must go at once round to where the chaps are waiting, and tell them they will not be wanted till to-morrow night at the same time.  I go to burn the lugger off.’

‘I will,’ he said; and instantly went off through a gate, Lizzy continuing her way.

On she tripped at a quickening pace till the lane turned into the turnpike-road, which she crossed, and got into the track for Ringsworth.  Here she ascended the hill without the least hesitation, passed the lonely hamlet of Holworth, and went down the vale on the other side.  Stockdale had never taken any extensive walks in this direction, but he was aware that if she persisted in her course much longer she would draw near to the coast, which was here between two and three miles distant from Nether-Moynton; and as it had been about a quarter-past eleven o’clock when they set out, her intention seemed to be to reach the shore about midnight.